Sound Resource Management Research Articles

Factors Affecting Public Participation in River Ecosystem Restoration: Using the Contingent Valuation Method

Understanding public support for ecosystem restoration is critical to its successful implementation because the sustainability of sound resource management is rooted in stakeholders’ support. The contingent valuation method was used to measure participants’ willingness to contribute, both in the form of money and time, to the restoration of an impaired river ecosystem. Data for this research was collected from the adult population of Dhaka City, located in the dying Buriganga River catchment. A study on the hypothetical restoration of this vulnerable urban river in Bangladesh showed that this new approach to framing the valuation questions generated greater contribution from the community. This approach was found suitable in the developing country setting where many of the participants’ ‘disposable income’ did not reflect their real earnings as the labour market was not fully monetized. This research finds strong support among residents for, and willingness to participate in, the restoration of the impaired ecosystem. The results from the logistic regression lend support to the hypothesis that a significant relationship exists between residents’ willingness to participate in restoration and their socio-demographic and perceptional characteristics. The information generated from this study will be helpful for better understanding the planning and implementation of ecosystem restoration strategies.

Mental Health in Schools: Moving in New Directions

It has long been acknowledged that a variety of psychosocial and health problems affect learning and performance in profound ways. And school policy makers have a lengthy history of trying to assist teachers in dealing with problems that interfere with schooling. Prominent examples are seen in the range of psychological, counseling, and social service programs schools provide (Adelman & Taylor 2010). Adding to the work done by student support personnel is whatever the community can offer to collocate and/or link to schools. While many societal considerations are involved, for the most part the rationale for strengthening mental health in schools has stressed one or both of the following points: * schools provide good access to students (and their families) who require mental health services; * schools need to address psychosocial and mental and physical health concerns to enable effective school performance and student well being. Point one typically reflects the perspective and agenda of mental health advocates and agencies whose mission is to improve mental health services. The second point reflects the perspective and agenda of student support professionals and some leaders for school improvement and also provides a supportive rationale for those wanting schools to play a greater role related to addressing young people's health concerns (Adelman & Taylor, 2006a, b). Implied in both agenda is the hope of enhancing the nature and scope of mental health interventions to fill gaps, enhance effectiveness, address problems early, reduce stigma, and fully imbue clinical and service efforts with public health, general education, and equity orientations. This issue ?? Contemporary School Psychology with its emphasis on promising approaches to wellness, social skills, and life competencies mainly reflects the second agenda. The problem with both rationales is that, when proposals emphasize another specific approach, another initiative, another team, and so forth, the fragmentation of efforts to focus on the "total child" at a school and throughout a district tends to increase. And, when fragmentation is exacerbated, efforts to embed mental health and psychosocial concerns are further marginalized in school improvement policy and practice. How Mental Health And Psychosocial Concerns Are Marginalized In Current School Improvement Policly And Practice Prevailing policy and plans for turning around, transforming, and continuously improving schools are primarily shaped by a two-component framework which marginalizes efforts related to providing additional supports and attention where needed (Adelman & Taylor, 1 998). This is graphically presented in Exhibit 1. As illustrated, the main thrust is on improving (1) instruction and (2) how schools manage resources, with the many student and learning support programs and services operated as supplementary add-ons. Obviously, effective instruction is fundamental to a school's mission; no one wants to send children to a school where teachers lack high standards, expectations, and competence; and sound governance and management of resources are essential. What is equally obvious is that teachers need and want considerable help in addressing barriers to student and school success. Unfortunately, many overlapping factors interfere with learning and teaching. Teachers in low performing schools point to how few students appear motivationally ready and able to learn what the daily lesson plan prescribes. Teachers in the upper grades report that a significant percentage of students are actively disengaged and alienated from classroom learning. And, acting out behavior, especially bullying and disrespect for others, is rampant. (So is passivity, but this attracts less attention.) One result of all this is seen in the increasing number of students misdiagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). …

Wild rivers, wild accusations – wild law in the Cape York wilderness

The contentious Wild Rivers Act 2005 (Qld) was enacted to protect the natural values of Queensland’s few remaining wild rivers. The law is remarkably enlightened in that it is consistent with current emerging philosophies of ecosystems as a series of complex and synergistic bioregions, and aims to manage human-based activities within catchments rather than managing the catchments or natural processes instead. A precautionary approach minimises harm from activities that are likely to have adverse effects on poorly understood ecosystems. The Act has at present very limited application, only nine far northern Queensland river systems in all. It has divided indigenous communities, some of whom accuse it of stifling much needed economic development while other indigenous people embrace Wild Rivers as enabling them to continue with their tradition way of life. This paper suggests Wild Rivers is wild law and investigates conflicting knowledge systems impacting upon the enactment of sound resource management legislation.

A common basis for analysis, evaluation and comparison of offstream water uses

Many analyses of water uses and their impacts on available resources fail to reflect the contribution of return flow to existing supply, misuse the term “efficiency”, and assume immediate savings by changes in irrigation. Sound resources management requires a method of analysis applicable to all classes of offstream water uses. Drawing on previous analysis, a Water Uses Assessment Equation is proposed: a methodology founded on the principle of rigorous water accounting. Examples of applications are provided together with misleading analyses and conclusions that might be avoided in the future through use of the equation.

Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Forests: The Significance of Participation of Stakeholders and Communities

Participation of local communities and transboundary conservation issues should be shared by governments and institutions. The knowledge of forest ecology provides the essential ecological basis for the successful management and conservation of forests and biodiversity. Government can play an important role in re-introducing or restoring the local and regional management practices that successfully integrate sound management of biological resources. The practices and beliefs of forestdwelling tribes, nomadic communities and farmers remain closely intertwined with the biological diversity they live amidst. Ethnobotany has an important role to play in conservation of nature and culture, particularly, biodiversity and diversity of traditional human cultures. There is need to further revise the forest policies and ensure wider participation of stakeholders in forest and other resource planning and decision making processes so that the constraints on the implementation of management programs could be resolved through the increased financial resources, conflict management, institutional strengthening and capacity building of human society and other related measures.

Dynamics of land use/cover changes and the analysis of landscape fragmentation in Dhaka Metropolitan, Bangladesh

Rapid urban expansion due to large scale land use/cover change, particularly in developing countries becomes a matter of concern since urbanization drives environmental change at multiple scales. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has been experienced break-neck urban growth in the last few decades that resulted many adverse impacts on the environment. This paper was an attempt to document spatio-temporal pattern of land use/cover changes, and to quantify the landscape structures in Dhaka Metropolitan of Bangladesh. Using multi-temporal remotely sensed data with GIS, dynamics of land use/cover changes was evaluated and a transition matrix was computed to understand the rate and pattern of land use/cover change. Derived land use statistics subsequently integrated with landscape metrics to determine the impact of land use change on landscape fragmentation. Significant changes in land use/cover were noticed in Dhaka over the study period, 1975–2005. Rapid urbanization was manifested by a large reduction of agricultural land since urban built-up area increased from 5,500 ha in 1975 to 20,549 ha in 2005. At the same time, cultivated land decreased from 12,040 to 6,236 ha in the same period. Likewise, wetland and vegetation cover reduced to about 6,027 and 2,812 ha, respectively. Consequently, sharp changes in landscape pattern and composition were observed. The landscape became highly fragmented as a result of rapid increase in the built-up areas. The analysis revealed that mean patch size decreased while the number of patches increased. Landscape diversity declined, urban dominance amplified, and the overall landscape mosaics became more continuous, homogenous and clumped. In order to devise sustainable land use planning and to determine future landscape changes for sound resource management strategies, the present study is expected to have significant implications in rapidly urbanizing cities of the world in delivering baseline information about long term land use change and its impact on landscape structure.

ALGORITHMS APPLIED IN THE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

In recent years, we have witnessed progressive changes in economic, social and environmental issues that affect businesses and their environment. At the same time, issues such as development, economic progress, sustainability and corporate responsibility are becoming increasingly important in economic and financial processes when making decisions. In a competitive and volatile business environment, uncertainty is generated in the course of the sound management of human resources. Based on stakeholder theory, we analyse corporate sustainability by proposing the use of algorithms that support entrepreneurs in the sustainable management of human resources, focusing specifically on the adequacy of labour practices according to the future ISO 26000 standards. The objective is to obtain a level of consensus between the company and its stakeholders on this specific topic, using different methods of fuzzy logic, such as Hamming Distance, the Adequacy Ratio and OWA Operators. To conclude our study, we present the contributions of our research and the results of applying different algorithms.

Redefining Walrus Stocks in Canada

Defining management units is basic to the sound management of resources. Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) are hunted throughout their range in Canada and are subject to other human activities requiring management decisions. Current management units are based on a comprehensive review and a stock assessment completed in the mid 1990s. Between 1993 and 2004, satellite-linked radio tags provided information on the movements of walrus in Canada’s High Arctic. These data were incorporated with other information that has become available since 1995 to reassess walrus management units in Canada. Tagging data and other information suggest that some finer discrimination of walrus populations is needed as a precautionary approach and to formulate testable hypotheses. Specifically, the previous North Water/Baffin Bay walrus stock may be considered to be three stocks: Baffin Bay, west Jones Sound, and Penny Strait Lancaster Sound stocks. The Foxe Basin population appears to comprise two stocks (North Foxe Basin and Central Foxe Basin) rather than one. Previously suspected subdivisions in the Hudson Bay-Davis Strait population are substantiated by isotopic evidence although sampling on a finer geographic scale is required before this stock can be partitioned. There is new evidence to support the previously postulated separation of the walrus in the Southern and Eastern Hudson Bay stock from all others, but no evidence to warrant subdivision.

Adapting the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model for forest applications

There has been an increasing public concern over forest stream pollution by excessive sedimentation due to natural or human disturbances. Adequate erosion simulation tools are needed for sound management of forest resources. The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) watershed model has proved useful in forest applications where Hortonian flow is the major form of runoff, such as modeling erosion from roads, harvested units, and burned areas by wildfire or prescribed fire. Nevertheless, when used for modeling water flow and sediment discharge from natural forest watersheds where subsurface flow is dominant, WEPP (v2004.7) underestimates these quantities, in particular, the water flow at the watershed outlet. The main goal of this study was to improve the WEPP v2004.7 so that it can be applied to adequately simulate forest watershed hydrology and erosion. The specific objectives were to modify WEPP v2004.7 algorithms and subroutines that improperly represent forest subsurface hydrologic processes; and, to assess the performance of the modified model by applying it to a research forest watershed in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Changes were made in WEPP v2004.7 to better model percolation of soil water and subsurface lateral flow. The modified model, WEPP v2008.9, was applied to the Hermada watershed located in the Boise National Forest, in southern Idaho, USA. The results from v2008.9 and v2004.7 as well as the field observations were compared. For the period of 1995–2000, average annual precipitation for the study area was 954 mm. Simulated annual watershed discharge was negligible using WEPP v2004.7, and was 262 mm using WEPP v2008.9, agreeable with field-observed 275 mm.

AIDS, women, land, and natural resources in Africa: current challenges

AIDS-affected households in rural Africa often turn to natural resources as a livelihood safety net. Yet women affected by AIDS have less time for sound resource management, and indigenous knowledge is lost when parents die before educating their children. As demand and inappropriate use grow, resource depletion and land degradation increase. In many countries, widows cannot inherit land. As poverty deepens in the wake of AIDS, women and girls are often forced into prostitution, accelerating the spread of HIV. Multi-sectoral approaches by development, health, and environmental organisations can reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS on women, rural communities, and the natural environment, through health work integrated with alternative livelihoods and women's empowerment.

Steps towards the development of a certification system for sustainable bio-energy trade

It is expected that international biomass trade will significantly increase in the coming years because of the possibly lower costs of imported biomass, the better supply security through diversification and the support by energy and climate policies of various countries. Concerns about potential negative effects of large-scale biomass production and export, like deforestation or the competition between food and biomass production, have led to the demand for sustainability criteria and certification systems that can control biomass trade. Because neither such criteria and indicator sets nor certification systems for sustainable biomass trade are yet available, the objective of this study is to generate information that can help to develop them. For these purposes, existing certification systems, sets of sustainability criteria or guidelines on environmental or social sound management of resources are analyzed with the purpose to learn about the requirements, contents and organizational set ups of a certification system for sustainable biomass trade. First, an inventory of existing systems was made; second, their structures were analyzed. Key finding from the analysis of internationally applied certification systems was that they are generally led by an international panel that represents all countries and stakeholders involved in the biomass production and trade activities. In third and fourth steps different approaches to formulate standards were described and a list of more than 100 social, economic, ecological and general criteria for sustainable biomass trade was extracted from the reviewed systems. Fifth, methods to formulate indicators, that make sustainability criteria measurable, and verifiers that are used to control the performance of indicators are described. It is recommended to further develop the criteria and indicator (C&I) sets for sustainable biomass trade by involvement of the relevant stakeholders (e.g. biomass producer and consumer) and the analysis of local conditions (e.g. local production potentials and limits, and preferences of local people).

Transboundary Aquifers: Conceptual Models for Development of International Law

More than one-half of the world's population is dependent on ground water for everyday uses such as drinking, cooking, and hygiene. In fact, it is the most extracted natural resource in the world. As a result of growing populations and expanding economies, many aquifers today are being depleted while others are being contaminated. Notwithstanding the world's considerable reliance on this resource, ground water resources have long received only secondary attention as compared to surface water, especially among legislatures and policymakers. Today, while there are hundreds of treaties governing transboundary rivers and lakes, there is only one international agreement that directly addresses a transboundary aquifer. Given that many of the aquifers on which humanity so heavily relies cross international borders, there is a considerable gap in the sound management, allocation, and protection of such resources. In order to prevent future disputes over transboundary aquifers and to maximize the beneficial use of this resource, international law must be clarified as it applies to transboundary ground water resources. Moreover, it must be defined with a firm basis in sound scientific understanding. In this paper we offer six conceptual models is which ground water resources can have transboudary consequences. The models are intended to help in assessing the applicability and scientific soundness of existing and proposed rules governing transboundary ground water resources. In addition, we consider the development of international law as it applies to ground water resources and make recommendations based on the models and principles of hydrogeology. The objective is the development of clear, logical, and science-based norms of state conducts as they relate to aquifers that traverse political boundaries.

Comparative LCAs for Curbside Recycling Versus Either Landfilling or Incineration with Energy Recovery (12 pp)

Comparative LCAs for Curbside Recycling Versus Either Landfilling or Incineration with Energy Recovery (12 pp)

Overview of US Minerals Management Service Activities in Deepwater Research

The US Minerals Management Service (MMS) is responsible for safe and environmentally sound management of offshore oil and gas resources. In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in both activities and plans for deepwater development of these resources in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). As the industry meets the enormous technical challenges involved, there is a concomitant effort to assure environmental protection of deep-ocean and coastal resources. This paper will outline the research planning and program currently underway to assess impacts, identify potential problems, and discover more about unknown resources of the deep ocean.

Gestión de campañas políticas

Management of political campaigns regarding the actions and policies of management and rational use of human, financial and material resources that are available in order to obtain the highest expected benefits. This implies incorporating all functions, knowledge and principles of management science to the proselytizing efforts of candidates and parties in seeking the vote of the elector. In this letter it is addressed so Concise Therefore, some of the elements, principles and more appropriate for a correct and sound management of resources involved in campaign recommendations. The work is made from a behavioral perspective and aims to contribute to the construction of a new field supported by administrative and specialized in political campaigns science knowledge.

Human resource management in Ghana: prescriptions and issues raised by the Fourth Republican Constitution

Human resource management in the public sector does not take place in a vacuum. It is carried out within a regulatory framework of laws, rules and regulations. Recent times have witnessed commendable efforts by many African countries to embrace democratic governance with its trappings of constitutionalism, which requires that the behaviour of politicians, public officials, public institutions and citizens should conform to the strictures of the Constitution of the land. This study examines the Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana and identifies constitutional provisions or prescriptions which have some relevance for human resource management in the Ghanaian public sector. Constitutional provisions identified in this regard deal with the following issues: human resource management policy, laws, rules and regulations, recruitment and selection, equal employment opportunity, employee rights and welfare, compensation and benefits, state of the economy, human resource development, work environment, Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), decentralisation and ethical issues. The paper discusses the relevance and implications of issues raised and concludes that the Fourth Republican Constitution contains important provisions which make for sound human resource management in the Ghanaian public sector.

Hydrological modelling of a drained grazing marsh under agricultural land use and the simulation of restoration management scenarios

The capability of the spatially-distributed, physically-based, rainfall-runoff modelling system, MIKE SHE, to simulate the hydrological behaviour of the natural and drained parts of the North Kent Grazing Marshes, UK, is investigated. The MIKE SHE code is applied to Bells Creek, a small, underdrained, agricultural catchment located within the marshes. The model is used to both provide insights into the essential parameters that control the hydrological processes in the catchment, and predict the influence of various, hypothetical, water management strategies (land use and drainage) on pumped discharge and soil moisture storage in the catchment. The water table model predictions arising from these hypothetical scenarios are also compared against field data obtained from on-going hydrological research on the neighbouring, natural, Elmley Marshes. The comparison is found to be favourable. The results of this study indicate the potential of the MIKE SHE system to simulate the hydrological regime of these wetlands, and hence to play an important role as a tool that can assist environmental and conservation agencies in the sound management of wetland resources.

Integrating a Research Station into Community Development and Area Protection in Nicaragua

The entire southeast of Nicaragua and parts of neighbouring Costa Rica are presently being organized according to an ambitious regional development scheme called Si-a-Paz (Yes-to-Peace). Included are areas from high to low management intensity, such as sustainable agricultural and ranching developments, forest restoration and buffer zones, cultural monuments, as well as biological and wildlife reserves. Integrated in this grand scheme is the isolated subsistence community of New Greytown (San Juan del Norte), access point to a stunning variety of unique habitats, including riverine, estuarine, marine, coastal lowland, and upland environments, which are virtually intact at this time. A research station is planned for this growing community, with the intent to not only serve the exploration of the nearby Rio Indio-Maiz Biological Reserve, but also to contribute lo the economic development of the community itself, by assuring scientifically sound resource management input, diversification of the local economy and environmental education of the public. This paper focuses on the history of this project, and the interaction of governmental and non-governmental organizations in making it happen.

Saving the sunburnt country

The Western Division of NSW is a land management unit covering 42% of the State. Land in the Division is characterised by extremes: semi-arid climate, low population density, horrific land degradation problems and decreasing productive potential. Government and the people living in the Division want to enhance both the natural and cultural values of the region. Sound land resource management practices are needed. This paper argues that an efficient cadastral system is a fundamental pre-requisite in providing a long term sustainable future for the Western Division. Specific measures are outlined to improve cadastral procedures and provide better information about the land resource in the Division. Lessons learnt here are directly relevant to management of marginal lands in any jurisdiction.

The Russian North: Problems and prospects1

Abstract Two distinguished senior researchers with expertise on Russia's northern regions assess the current situation and recent developments in light of social, environmental, and economic change and recommend adjustments, in some cases substantial, in regional development policy. Particular emphasis is placed in this assessment upon the global importance of the Russian North in an environmental and natural resource sense. The authors add their voices to the now‐familiar call for state intervention to ensure sound management of resources and control over the level of foreign investments. In addition, they argue that, alongside a concern for the protection of the rights of the indigenous minorities (Small Peoples) of the North, attention should be devoted to the interests of a resident Russian population of several centuries.